By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

August 23, 2014

Diego Costa kept up the prolific start to his Chelsea career on Saturday, paving the way for a 2-0 win over visiting Leicester City.

Costa, a striker from Spain, scored in the 63rd minute. He also scored in his debut, a 3-1 win over Burnley on Monday in Chelsea’s Premier League opener.

The winger Eden Hazard added a goal in the 77th minute as Chelsea won a second straight game against a team promoted this season from the second-tier League Championship.

It might have been a different story, however, had Leicester’s David Nugent not been denied by Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois with the score 0-0.

“I don’t forget they had a good chance with the result 0-0,” Chelsea Manager José Mourinho said, “but we had so many chances, so many opportunities to score, obviously, we deserved the victory.”

Didier Drogba was given a standing ovation from the Chelsea fans when he came on as a second-half substitute. It was his first appearance in his second stint with Chelsea.

But the team has a new scoring star in Costa, signed for 32 million British pounds (about $53 million) from Atlético Madrid in the off-season.

Swansea is the only other team in the Premier League to have opened the season with consecutive wins, following up a victory at Manchester United by beating visiting Burnley, 1-0.

Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud scored in the final seven minutes as Arsenal earned a 2-2 draw at Everton. Giroud headed home the equalizer with 40 seconds left of normal time.

MÁLAGA’S WILD, WINNING DEBUT Málaga held on to beat visiting Athletic Bilbao, 1-0, in its Spanish league opener, giving Coach Javi Gracia a winning debut at La Rosaleda Stadium. Luis Alberto scored in the 34th minute, converting on the rebound from his own blocked penalty kick.

Málaga’s Duda was given a red card for shoving Iker Muniain to the turf in the 88th, and a second Málaga player, Vitorino Antunes, was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Guillermo Fernández two minutes into stoppage time.

Goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz came forward in the final minute and thought he had scored an unlikely equalizer when he headed the ball into the net. But the referee disallowed the goal because a line judge had ruled a Bilbao player offside on the free kick.

Even Gracia, the opposing coach, praised Iraizoz and questioned the referee’s decision.

“I saw a great goal by Gorka,” he said. “I saw the line judge lift his flag, but I don’t know why.”

LEVERKUSEN STARTS FAST Karim Bellarabi scored the quickest goal in the 52 seasons of the Bundesliga to help Bayer Leverkusen start its season with a 2-0 victory over host Borussia Dortmund.

Bellarabi scored nine seconds after kickoff, beating the record of 11 seconds, set in 1998 and tied twice.

Schalke, which crashed out of the German Cup with a loss to third-division Dynamo Dresden on Monday, squandered a lead at Hannover, conceding two goals in three minutes to lose, 2-1.

LIBYA GIVES UP AFRICAN CUP Libya has withdrawn as the host of the 2017 African Cup over security fears, the Confederation of African Football said, throwing organizers into a frantic rush to find a new location.

C.A.F. has given countries until the end of September to submit applications to stage the continent’s top tournament.

Libya was meant to host the African Cup in 2013 but asked South Africa to step in for it then because of security concerns, giving Libya another four years to prepare. But the country has continued to be racked by violence.

UKRAINIAN STADIUM DAMAGED The stadium of Shakhtar Donetsk, the Ukrainian champion, was damaged by shelling in the conflict between government troops and pro-Russian separatists. Sergei Palkin, the club’s chief executive, said two shells struck the stadium complex early Saturday morning, one damaging the building itself and another striking its electricity substation.

Shakhtar published photos showing debris strewn around a stadium entrance but said there were no casualties among the stadium staff.

Shakhtar’s home city, Donetsk, is the largest city controlled by pro-Russian rebels. Shakhtar is playing its home games this season in the western Ukrainian city Lviv because of the conflict.